Umbrella DNS vs Google DNS for DHCP

Mloraditch
A model citizen

Umbrella DNS vs Google DNS for DHCP

Does using the Umbrella DNS option provide any benefit over using Google? I had someone tell me it does. We use other products for filtering and I didn't think Umbrella gave away anything for free anymore, but I am struggling to find any documentation one way or the other as most things point to the enhanced integrations that are now available.

7 Replies 7
RWelch
Building a reputation
RWelch
Building a reputation
Mloraditch
A model citizen

So that's not what I'm looking for. I'm asking if literally the only thing I have is Meraki DHCP handing out Umbrella DNS vs Google DNS. Does that Umbrella DNS provide anything different than the Google DNS? The person I talked to was under the impression that Umbrella DNS blocks some really  bad things by default if we use it vs Google not doing that.

DarrenOC
Kind of a big deal
Kind of a big deal

  • Hi @Mloraditch , you are right in that Umbrella DNS does weed out the bad.  I would personally use Umbrella DNS over Google DNS. Both are free for the purpose you’ll be using them for but Umbrella DNS can stop such things as C&C etc
Darren OConnor | doconnor@resalire.co.uk
https://www.linkedin.com/in/darrenoconnor/

I'm not an employee of Cisco/Meraki. My posts are based on Meraki best practice and what has worked for me in the field.
BlakeRichardson
Kind of a big deal
Kind of a big deal

Umbrella to get the most benefits requires licensing. You can create an account and have it monitor your DNS request but without licensing I don't believe it will provide filtering.

 

https://one.one.one.one/dns/ is a Cloudflare alternative. 

pdeleuw
Getting noticed

A real alternative is https://quad9.net/. You can choose between filtered DNS and unfiltered DNS.

Brash
Kind of a big deal
Kind of a big deal

As said above, essentially "Use Umbrella" points to Umbrella/OpenDNS servers. My understanding is that this includes some very basic security type filtering (known Malware domains, C&C's etc.) Unlike the paid version of Umbrella, this does not include any content filtering, granularity of policies or reporting.

 

Google DNS is using Google's DNS servers with no filtering at all.

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